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Logically, the next step would be to make a full-length movie, right? Haven’t I written a screenplay and sold it to Hollywood yet? Aren’t they all watching The JC Story and hiring me to direct movies?

I guess that would be nice. Yet the more I find out about how Hollywood works, about how the industry works, the more I’m turned off by it. I’’ve read a lot of screenwriting books, articles, interviews, websites, etc. I’ve taken a class from they guy who co-wrote “While You Were Sleeping.” I don’t want to be a professional screenwriter.

The latest I’ve been reading is the website www.wordplayer.com which is the website of screenwriting duo Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio. You’ve probably seen something they’ve written: Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean (all three).

Their website is the best course in screenwriting I’ve ever taken. (Although, if you’re interested in reading screenwriter’s blogs, John August (Go, Big Fish) has one too: http://www.johnaugust.com/) I’ve learned from them why I really don’t want to be a screenwriter, how dense, wordy, and confusing an actual screenwriting contract is, and that people sometimes get paid at least $100,000 in Hollywood to not direct movies. Also, outside one of the Disney buildings where the statues of the seven dwarves are, when it rains the water runs down Dopey and makes it look like he’s pissing. And I haven’t even read all of their columns yet.

As a side note, if you’re curious as to what it’s like being a member of the production on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Terry Rossio has been blogging about it on his Myspace. Personally, I like his preferred title for the third movie (Calypso’s Fury) better than the one they’re going with (At World’s End).

Anywho, what it all boils down to is that Hollywood and the movie industry is in pretty sorry shape, and I’m not too keen on “breaking in.” Which doesn’t mean I don’t want to make movies, it just means I’ll have to do it Kevin Smith style, or Robert Rodriguez style. Or Steven Soderbergh style.